An imperfect reality: gender mainstreaming and disarmament, demobilisation, rehabilitation and reintegration (DDRR) in Liberia

Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programmes are a fundamental component in peacebulding operations and feature in most contemporary peace agreements. Since the conceptualisation of peacebuilding in the early 1990s, there has been a marked shift towards promoting the spread of liberal democracy, rule of law and rejuvenation of markets in countries emerging from conflict. This liberal peacebuilding approach has been criticised by scholars for creating sequencing difficulties, for imposing a form of Western Imperialism and for neglecting the local context. Furthermore, feminists consider this type of peacebuilding as limited as it focuses on the priorities of men in the post-conflict environment and fails to recognise women’s changed roles through conflict or their agency, and frequently expects them to return to conventional gender roles. Despite policy revisions to include women’s perspectives (e.g. UNSCR 1325) women are still viewed as victims and peacemakers, and their roles and needs are not sufficiently addressed. This is acutely evident in DDR programmes, which have neglected many of the concerns of women who help constitute fighting forces in modern warfare. Moves to include women through gender mainstreaming have not been researched in detail and in this respect this study provides an original contribution to knowledge. This study investigated the gender mainstreaming of DDRR in Liberia from both implementer and participant perspectives. This hybrid approach reveals that the gender provision only fully exerted an impact within the DD process with campaigns to improve participation. Proxy cases stretched budgets that meant that the gender mainstreaming of both the RR was virtually non-existent. Women were treated largely the same as men with a programme that focused solely on economic reintegration. Issues of enhancing gender equality were sidelined. Despite the majority not using the skills learnt through DDRR, most gained some empowerment from the process and had reintegrated well despite many showing signs of psychological trauma. Their positive reintegration was not much an effect of DDRR but rather a function of their social reintegration processes and in particular their social networks and community links. These findings represent an advance in understanding of social reintegration in African post-conflict settings and the extent to which such networks are an important feature of successful reintegration for women. This research advocates policy revisions that incorporate social reintegration as a basis for DDR programmes and use a hybrid approach to planning.